[Don_S]

Hello,  I did a forum search and did not find any information on my question.

I recently had a hi-def antenna installed.  The installer ran RG6 coaxial up to the entry point of my home.  The coaxial in my attic is 20 year old RG59.  Is it worth my time and expense to do battle with the spiders and replace the apx 25' in my attic and wall?  I think I could pull the new coax fairly easily by using an "F" connector to attach it to the old. 

I used RG6 for the new outlet I added.

Main hesitation is I hate playing "monkey in the attic" and I would need to borrow a friend to help me on the downstairs end.

Another question is about the last 5'.  How important is the last piece of coax from the splitter to the equipment?  So far the shortest pre-terminated RG6 I have found is 6'. I need five pieces to hook up all my gear in different rooms and would prefer shorter pieces.  My main equipment area is pretty tangled already. What do I lose if I stay with the RG59 coax that came with the gear.  Will it not matter for the short run or would there be some bandwidth lost (weakest link theory).

Thanks,  Don

[warnerwh]

Definitely replace that old RG59. RG 6 is much better as it has less signal loss and the old RG 59 no doubt has some oxidation. You'll get a much better signal for little money. The new coax is cheap too so you may as well use quad shield.

I've put up coax a few times the last several years and making a new fm antenna run I noticed oxidation on 2 year old coax even though it had been very well sealed. Fortunately it was a longer run and I'd planned on just replacing the whole run anyway but had been really surprised by the oxidation on the shield.

Home Depot sells it by the foot. Seems like it's about 30 or 40 cents a foot for the quad stuff. If it's going to get any weather there's F connectors for that environment too. I'd use it anyway as they don't cost much.

The run length can be significant but it sounds like you wouldn't have much. If you can crimp on your own connectors you can make everything the length you need. Be sure to get connectors for RG 6 and not RG 59 as they won't fit and if you don't read the package like one guy I know you'll have to go get some more.

[Dan Driscoll]

Ditto what Warner said, it is well worth replacing old RG59 with new RG6.